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GTA transit gets $9B jump-start

Two years after the TTC mapped out a vision for sleek, Euro-style light rail lines stretching to the suburbs, Queen's Park has given the city the money to begin building.

The corners of Finch and Yonge serves as a hub that brings the TTC, York Region Transit, Viva and Go Transit together in one small area. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

By Tess Kalinowskitransportation reporter

Thu., April 2, 2009

Two years after the TTC mapped out a vision for sleek, Euro-style light rail lines stretching to the suburbs, Queen's Park has given the city the money to begin building.

Jubilant politicians and transit officials gathered in a York Region bus garage yesterday for a precedent-setting $9 billion provincial announcement that gives the city the $7.2 billion it needs to pay for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Finch West line, two of seven proposed light rail lines, plus expanding and refurbishing the aging Scarborough RT.

"This is the delivery of the money, the commitment the premier made, to fund Transit City," said Mayor David Miller.

Calling it "the most ambitious project of its kind in Canadian history," Premier Dalton McGuinty said there is more money to come.

The announcement did not cover the Sheppard East LRT line, which is supposed to be the first of the Transit City lines to appear. Construction is to start in September for completion around 2013, at a cost of $1.2 billion.

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The TTC also plans to issue a contract later this month, worth at least $1.25 billion, for 204 streetcars to replace its deteriorating 30-year-old fleet.

"There could not be a more important announcement about building a 21st-century city," Miller said, adding it will create jobs, reduce pollution and gridlock, and encourage investment.

"No longer will someone who lives in northeast Scarborough and works in southwest Etobicoke have to spend hours taking four different modes of public transit to get from A to B. They'll be able to navigate the city and the region quickly and efficiently and reliably."

Included in the $9 billion is:

• $4.6 billion for the 32.5-kilometre Eglinton line, which would extend from Pearson airport to Kennedy station in the east. About 13 kilometres will run underground, roughly between Leslie and Keele Sts. Construction is expected to begin next year and be complete by 2016. Planners anticipate the line will carry 52 million riders annually by 2021.

• $1.2 billion for Finch West, an 18-kilometre line between Humber College's north campus, near Highway 27, and the Yonge subway at Finch station. That line, also expected to break ground next year, is to be running by 2013. The TTC may extend the line to Don Mills, where it could connect with the Sheppard subway and LRT. The TTC predicts it will have an annual ridership of 24 million by 2021.

• The 30-year-old, 7.2-kilometre Scarborough RT will get new vehicles and be extended to Malvern Town Centre or Markham Rd., for $1.4 billion. Construction is to begin next year for service in 2015.

• York Region will get $1.4 billion to buy more buses and extend its Viva bus rapidways, centre lanes designated exclusively for buses. The sections funded include Highway 7 from Vaughan Centre to Markham Centre at Kennedy; Yonge St. from Richmond Hill Centre to 19th Ave.; and Yonge St. from Mulock Dr. to Davis Dr., then east to Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket. The first segment is supposed to be complete by 2011, with full service by 2013.

• Hamilton will get $3 million to study two rapid-transit corridors.

Miller called the cost estimates on TTC lines "broad-brush" numbers.

Environmental assessments must still be completed, but the province's new streamlined process for transit puts a six-month cap on environmental assessments for such projects, McGuinty said.

"We need the jobs they create today, and for tomorrow we need more and better transit, because this recession is going to end."

He and Miller acknowledged construction will prompt complaints.

"But on the other hand, particularly (for) small retail businesses, there are significant opportunities for success once you have rapid transit," Miller said. "Everywhere in the city you have rapid transit, people want to live (there). Parts of all these lines go through neighbourhoods that need a boost."

The package does not include any federal money, but Miller said he's hopeful the city will be able to make use of some of the infrastructure cash Ottawa announced earlier.

The projects covered by yesterday's pledge are all part of the province's MoveOntario 2020 program announced in June 2007. They were also recommended in the Metrolinx 25-year regional transportation plan revealed in September, among $50 billion in proposed improvements to transit in the Toronto-Hamilton area.

It's still not clear where most of the money to implement the Metrolinx plan will come from.

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